Anson's Voyage Round the World eBook

When we had furled our sails, the remaining part of
the night was allowed to our people for their repose,
to recover them from the fatigue they had undergone,
and in the morning a party was sent on shore well armed,
of which I myself was one, to make ourselves masters
of the landing-place, as we were not certain what
opposition might be made by the Indians on the island.
We landed without difficulty, for the Indians having
perceived by our seizure of the bark the night before,
that we were enemies, they immediately fled into the
woody parts of the island. We found on shore
many huts which they had inhabited, and which saved
us both the time and trouble of erecting tents.
One of these huts, which the Indians made use of for
a storehouse, was very large, being twenty yards long
and fifteen broad; this we immediately cleared of some
bales of jerked beef which we found in it, and converted
it into an hospital for our sick, who, as soon as
the place was ready to receive them, were brought
on shore, being in all one hundred and twenty-eight.
Numbers of these were so very helpless that we were
obliged to carry them from the boats to the hospital
upon our shoulders, in which humane employment (as
before at Juan Fernandez) the Commodore himself and
every one of his officers were engaged without distinction;
and notwithstanding the great debility of the greatest
part of our sick, it is almost incredible how soon
they began to feel the salutary influence of the land.
For though we buried twenty-one men on this and the
preceding day, yet we did not lose above ten men more
during our whole two months’ stay here; and in
general our diseased received so much benefit from
the fruits of the island, particularly the fruits
of the acid kind, that in a week’s time there
were but few who were not so far recovered as to be
able to move about without help; and on the 12th of
September all those who were so far relieved as to
be capable of doing duty were sent on board the ship.
And then the Commodore, who was himself ill of the
scurvy, had a tent erected for him on shore, where
he went with the view of staying a few days for the
recovery of his health, being convinced, by the general
experience of his people, that no other method but
living on the land was to be trusted to for the removal
of this dreadful malady. As the crew on board
were now reinforced by the recovered hands returned
from the island, we began to send our casks on shore
to be fitted up, which till now could not be done,
for the coopers were not well enough to work.
We likewise weighed our anchors that we might examine
our cables, which we suspected had by this time received
considerable damage. And as the new moon was now
approaching, when we apprehended violent gales, the
Commodore, for our greater security, ordered that
part of the cables next to the anchors to be armed
with the chains of the fire-grapnels, and they were
besides cackled twenty fathoms from the anchors and
seven fathoms from the service, with a good rounding
of a 4 1/2 inch hawser, and to all these precautions
we added that of lowering the main and fore yards close
down, that in case of blowing weather the wind might
have less power upon the ship to make her ride a-strain.